2024 Updates from the CEMS DEI Working Group

The DEI Working Group, is a coalition of CEMS faculty, staff, graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and undergraduates focused on improving the DEI climate of the CEMS department; they did excellent work in 2024. The Working Group is split into 4 committees: Climate, Inclusive Teaching, Outreach, and Graduate Recruiting. 

This year, the Climate Committee both expanded upon initiatives from the previous years and undertook new projects in response to department needs. The Committee launched the fourth annual CEMS Climate Survey, which is designed to provide information about how supportive and inclusive the department feels to students, postdocs, faculty, and staff. The Committee analyzed data from last year’s Climate Survey and summarized the key points in a 1-page infographic that was shared with the CEMS faculty leadership to formulate action items to respond to concerns. The Committee also launched the third annual Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Action, and Service Award (IDEAS) which is open to all CEMS students, postdoctoral associates, and staff, and recognizes service that betters the CEMS community and beyond. Finally, the Climate Committee was charged by Dan to survey CEMS graduate students and postdoctoral researchers about personal safety on campus and in the surrounding communities; Dan shared results with the CEMS faculty, the dean’s office, and the provost’s office to prompt action. This also led to a town hall meeting where CEMS grads and postdocs were invited to ask questions and give suggestions about their safety concerns directly to the UMN and Metro Transit Police Departments. 

The Inclusive Teaching Committee also advanced several initiatives this year. To encourage more professors to adopt inclusive teaching practices, the committee drew from the second annual Inclusive Teaching Workshop to put up posters of the Top 5 Inclusive Teaching Practices in spaces frequented by faculty. The Committee also published a form for students to provide positive feedback regarding helpful inclusive teaching practices. Several Committee members also participated in additional workshops sponsored by the First Generation Institute, the CSE D&I Alliance, and the “Fostering International and Multilingual Student Success” program. Finally, members of the Inclusive Teaching and Climate Committees worked together to synthesize a document concisely outlining the recommended procedures for Graduate Students in Challenging Scenarios (e.g. advisor disagreements, failure of qualifying exam).

The Outreach Committee continued to connect the CEMS community with outreach events at the University and in the greater Twin Cities. In this regard, the Committee put together a website enumerating all the outreach initiatives in CEMS and explaining how K-12 educators and K-12 students can get involved. This creates a centralized location for students and educators to find out about events, watch educational videos starring CEMS students, and get connected with CEMS for future interactions.

The Graduate Student Recruiting Committee continued outreach to Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and built relationships between MSIs and CEMS. To this end, several CEMS faculty gave talks at MSIs this year, and several professors from MSIs were invited to give talks in CEMS. These relationships were furthered at conferences throughout the year.